Chicago Blackhawks Will Ban “The Stripper”

The Chicago Blackhawks have a “Shoot the Puck” contest during the second intermission of games at the United Center, with contestants from the audience. There is always a female participant, and the United Center organist play’s the 1962 instrumental tune “The Stripper”, a David Rose composition that reached Number One on the Billboard charts in July of ’62, while the female participant is shooting the puck.

Well, that doesn’t sit too well with a Hawks fan named Marissa Miller. She considers the practice of playing the song for female contestants sexist (it’s not played while men are shooting), and beyond that, she claims that the contestants who are officially picked at random, always have a young, attractive woman and not your typical average looking woman or someone’s grandmother.

Miller wants some diversity in the contestants, and an end to the playing of “The Stripper”. To that end, she started an online petition, and drew 900 signatures. This got the attention of Blackhawks’ management, and CEO John McDonough confirmed that the “The Stripper” will no longer be played. McDonough did not commit to any other changes at this point, but he said the team listens to its fans and takes these things seriously.

It’s not a big deal to change the music, and why not give a more representative cross section of the fans a chance to participate in the contest? Those are easy and painless changes that can be made. Miller, however, doesn’t stop there. The Blackhawks have a group called The Ice Crew, a group that officially represents the Hawks at home games and at community events. One of the duties of the Ice Crew is to scrape the snow off the ice surface during timeouts. It just so happens that The Ice Crew consists entirely of very attractive women, who skate around in outfits similar to what cheerleaders wear these days, at least cheerleader/dance teams that many professional sports franchises have.

Ms. Miller wants The Ice Crew to be dressed more “appropriately” however one defines that, while scraping the ice. We think she’s overreacting on this. Sure, the male fans are going to ogle them while they’re out there, but then the female fans are constantly ogling the players, too, so let’s just all lighten up and call it a wash.